Chapter 8

"You must go, Duchess," the squire's wife said to her across her own table. "The soup alone—and the old ladies are so charming. The youngest sings like an angel.""Old ladies?" said the Duchess.There was a little silence. Then somebody told her whose aunts they were.Cordelia, Duchess of Brexwell, set down her spoon and did not pick it up again for the rest of the evening. Nobody had told her there were aunts in the dower rooms. Nobody had told her anything at all.The frost came a week before Christmas. It came in the night—hard, white, and silent. In the morning, the pump in the yard was a pillar of ice, and the ruts in the lane were like iron. For three nights, it did not lift.On the fourth, in the small hours, there was a crack in the kitchen like a shot. Maud sat up in the chair where she slept by the fire and saw smoke pouring out of the chimney breast into the room, thick and gray, through a split in the old mortar as long as her arm.She got the ladies out of the bed, wrapped them in every blanket in the house, and shut them in the back room. Then she raked out the fire in the smoke, threw water on it, and stood in the dark, cold kitchen with her eyes streaming.In the morning, Mr. Sneath came. He did not come in. He stayed by the gate in his caped coat, looked up at the broken chimney and at the ladies in the back window with blankets over their heads, and took out a paper."His Grace has heard," he said, "that his aunts are keeping a public eating house. His Grace finds it an embarrassment to the family. The four shillings is stopped until the spring. If the ladies wish to return, there are rooms made ready over the laundry where they will be kept quietly, as befits their station. The cart will come for them on Monday."

The Duke Sent Her His 3 Old Aunts for Winter — By Easter His Duchess Begged a Seat at Their Table

A Kind Lady Defended an Elderly Dowager Being Insulted — Never Knowing She Was the Duke's Mother

The Duke Sent Her His 3 Old Aunts for Winter — By Easter His Duchess Begged a Seat at Their Table

"What Are You Going To Do" 5 Bullies Taunted The Single Dad — His Answer Silenced The Entire Park

“Bow Down,” He Ordered — Then the Quiet Single Dad Veteran Made the Black Belt Regret It

The Rich Neighbor’s Black-Belt Son Challenged a Single Dad — Unaware He Was a Navy SEAL

News in the same category

The Duke Sent Her His 3 Old Aunts for Winter — By Easter His Duchess Begged a Seat at Their Table